


Knitting With Rope

by Rikaleeta



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Major character death is just another day at the office with taz, taako becomes an emissary of istus, taako's fine dont worry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25235236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikaleeta/pseuds/Rikaleeta
Summary: When 40 people die in Glamour Springs because they ate Taako's cooking, he's arrested and given the highest punishment local government allows- hanging. When he dies, Taako recovers his memories. Istus claims him as her emissary to right temporal crimes before he can be thrown into the Eternal Stockade.
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 88





	1. Prologue

Taako should've been paying more attention. 

But the human man in front of him was enthusiastically asking question after question about the recipe, and other recipes, and apparently he'd seen other shows and he wanted to be able to cook the dishes Taako made in front of the audience. Every time Taako tried to turn his attention elsewhere, or brush the man off, he got twice as pushy. 

And then people started getting sick. The man hadn't touched a bite on his plate, claiming he didn't want to risk not being able to talk to Taako because of something silly like chewing. 

At first, Taako wondered if the mask over his mouth, meant to protect the food so he didn't infect it, had been ineffectual. But no, he may be an idiot, but even he knew sickness didn't take hold that fast. There was something wrong with the food. 

Everyone who had eaten- dozens of people- were in various stages of getting sick. Taako should have been paying attention, should have gotten him and Sazed out of there when the first person got sick. They'd never let him leave now.

It was the elderberries, it had to be. Taako found himself dashing out of the cart, trying to help, to the surprise of both himself and Sazed. Well, he assumed he surprised Sazed based on the sound of his startled shout behind him as he ran into the crowd. He figured if he couldn't get out of town he might be able to help.

Everything kind of became a blur after that. He was vaguely aware of Sazed trying to take the stagecoach and leave. Taako was trying to get someone to talk to him, explain what was going on, so he could- he didn't know what he could do, actually, he was just some dumbass who got lucky enough to have a popular show and knew the most basic transmutation magic. Transmutation magic he apparently couldn't even do right. 

Someone left and came back some time later, guards or militia or someone with law enforcement status with them. Taako vaguely remembered being taken away in cuffs enchanted with an Antimagic Field. He was taken to a room empty except for a table and some chairs, with a window in one wall enchanted so you could only see through it if you were on the outside. 

An interrogation room. He'd been in a few as a kid, when he stole something and was dumb enough to get caught. The only difference was he was alone- usually- no, he was always alone. He ignored how that thought sat wrong in his chest. He'd always been alone. The only difference now was he was an adult. 

Taako forcefully turned his thoughts away from his memories and instead focused on what he was gonna say. Or tried to, anyway. He could barely force his thoughts to make sense, they were all over the place, and he couldn't even focus enough to see the table in front of him. But he had to- if he didn't even have a story, they'd convict him on the spot, and these crimes were far greater than stealing some food. 

He clamped his hands together so his nails dug into the backs of his hands, trying to use the pain to focus. What did he know? 

What he knew was that he'd fucked up, and now dozens of people were sick or dying or dead already, and it was because he managed to get fucking  _ elderberry and deadly nightshade mixed up.  _ But he couldn't say that. He was pretty sure they did capital punishment here. He'd rather not be executed.

The guard came back in, pausing and glaring at him from the door. "Ah, Taako. We have some questions for you." Taako nodded. The guard sat down. 

"So. Do you have an explanation for this?" That… was pretty straightforward. It was pretty obvious the interrogator thought it was purposeful, though. 

"I… I must've fucked up." Taako pressed his forehead into his hands, trying not to have a panic attack. "Done something stupid, like make the berries nightshade instead of elderberry." He laughed hysterically, barely holding back tears, which probably didn't help his case much. 

The rest of the interrogation blurred together. He couldn't remember most of it. 

He was taken to a tiny cell in a tiny collection of cells. He sat on the bed and stared at his hands for what must have been hours, ignoring the food that was slid under the door. He didn't even move when the lights turned out, trying to corral his thoughts. It didn't work. 

The lights eventually came back on, and Taako still couldn't move. He realised, belatedly, that he hadn't even meditated. 

At some point, someone came around to give breakfast to him and the other handful of prisoners. They made a disgusted sound when they got to his cell, yanking his dinner tray out violently and leaving him without breakfast. That was fine. Taako wasn't hungry. He wasn't sure he would ever be again. 

Another couple hours passed, and the same detective from yesterday came back to his cell. Taako still hadn't moved. The detective yanked the cell open, glaring at him all the while. "Let's go."

Taako stood mechanically, allowing handcuffs to be put on his wrists, and followed the other man. 

When they got to the interrogation room, he was handcuffed to the table. The man sat down across from the table, looking quietly furious. He stared Taako down for a few minutes before talking. 

"Your assistant talked. He said you poisoned the guests of your show on purpose." 

That shocked Taako enough that his thoughts didn't so much clear themself up as disappear completely. His ears shot up in shock.  _ "What?!"  _

The detective narrowed his eyes, lips curling in disgust. "Now why would you poison  _ 40 fucking people,  _ people who love and support your show? On  _ purpose?"  _

"Wh- I didn't!"

"Really? How easy would it be to transmute the berries on purpose and then say it was an accident?"

"I-"

"Why didn't you eat any of the food, Taako? That's pretty suspicious."

"I'm sick. I didn't want to get other people sick. It was an  _ accident." _

The detective stared at him coldly. "How convenient." 

Taako didn't know what to say. Why was Sazed telling the detectives he did it on purpose? Sazed  _ knew  _ him. He was an asshole, but not a murderer. 

The detective finally shook his head. "Whatever. We have all we need to take you to trial. You're getting the death penalty." He stood up, and probably would have shoved the table back if it wasn't bolted to the floor, marching over to roughly release Taako from the table. 

He was shoved roughly back into his cell. Not even the other two prisoners would look at him. That was fine. He just went back to his bed and put his head in his hands.

* * *

It only took a couple days for the trial to happen. Surprisingly quick, but Glamor Springs was small and Taako had killed forty people.  _ Forty.  _ He still couldn't quite wrap his mind around it. 

On the day of the trial, he was led to the courtroom instead of the interrogation room, taken through the courtroom packed to the brim. Most people were crying or looked like they had just been. Taako tried not to look at them. 

He was sat at the defendant's stand. His lawyer, provided by the town, gave him a dirty look. Great. Real comforting. 

The trial itself was a joke. It took three days to get through all the witnesses, and Taako himself was last. Every question made him look guiltier. He never stood a chance. 

The execution took place the day after he was declared guilty of forty counts of first degree murder. Public. The hangman's stand was in the same place his wagon had been. His wagon had been dragged a good ten feet away, and was half demolished. His horse was nowhere in sight. 

He was led up the rickety stairs of the temporary structure. The town looked on. 

Taako closed his eyes. 


	2. Chapter One: The Least Bullshit Weave of Fate

The first thing Kravitz noticed when he came to reap the soul was that it was in pain. Even though it was a ball of light, like all souls, it seemed to be curled around itself. 

_ Well, serves it right,  _ Kravitz thought- it was one of the mysterious bounties that had appeared a few years before. It was actually one of the lesser ones, unbelievable as that was- only one of the other bounties in its group was lower than it. 

Despite the high bounty, Kravitz cringed a bit. He always felt guilty when thoughts like that flashed through his brain, rare as they were. He blamed it on exhaustion. The fact that he didn't need to sleep, and hadn't for a few hundred years, was irrelevant. 

The second thing he noticed was that they were standing below the gallows for the town, and that the gallows themself looked temporary. Kravitz wondered what the necromancer had done to get himself hanged. 

Kravitz sighed, swinging his scythe down to gather the soul, when he felt a tug on his own. His Queen was calling him. He cursed under his breath, moving to tear open a rift to the Astral Plane. He'd have to hurry and go see her after he tossed the bounty into the Stockade. 

Or at least, that had been the plan. Kravitz had barely made a move to go through his rift when his perception shifted and he felt a sharper tug on his soul, and he found himself standing in the middle of the Raven Queen's throne room. 

It had been a while since she force transported him, and it left him a bit disoriented. She hadn't done it to him since he'd fucked up a couple centuries ago and gone after a group of friends casting a divination spell together, rather than the necromantic cult he had been chasing. (In his defense, the cult members and the friend group were closely related. So.) 

"My Queen, why have you brought me here? I need to take him to the Stockade." Kravitz said, lifting his scythe just slightly to indicate the soul. He kept it not quite perpendicular to the ground and off to his left, so there was nothing between him and the goddess. 

The Raven Queen sighed tiredly behind her veil, her face in her hand and nearly ten stories above him. "Istus wants him. Something about the fate of the world." 

"What? But-" 

"Istus wants him."

"B'sides, I dunno if you guys care about it here, but the whole multiple deaths thing wasn't even our fault." A voice came from off to Kravitz's left, startling him. He looked over to see the soul had shaped itself out to look like he had in life, scythe hooked around his waist and hip cocked. 

The Raven Queen blinked in surprise. At least, Kravitz assumed she did. She had the air of surprise about her, anyway. "Yes, we care about that very much." She said, adjusting to sit straight in her throne. "Victims are not punished. That would be cruel. Have you any evidence to prove you are not merely a necromancer trying to worm his way out of the Stockade?"

"My speciality is transmutation." The soul said flatly, crossing his arms. "And besides, I've never been in this Astral Plane, right? And yet I know how to do this." He gestured to his form. He had a point- most souls took years to figure out how to shape their soul into a sort-of construct, and his looked pretty solid. 

The Raven Queen stared him down, and the soul sighed, dropping his arms. "Hope you two have time for a story, cuz this one's a long one." 

The soul made to sit on the ground, deftly unhooking himself from Kravitz's scythe. Kravitz squawked in protest- he couldn't just do that, he had to be connected to the scythe so he couldn't escape! 

As if on cue, a sound like fabric tearing came from across the room, just in time to stop Taako from starting his story. Istus poked her head through the rift, head covered in a shimmering silver veil. "Did I miss the good part?" 

Kravitz wanted very much to not be here. This was supposed to be a simple mission. Why was nothing ever simple? 

The soul, however, just laughed. "Nah, not at all. Istus, right? You look a lot different than the last Istus we saw. She had, y'know," the soul put his hands on top of his head and wiggled his fingers so they looked vaguely like waving horns, "and she was blue." 

Kravitz waited for Istus to get mad, but she just laughed along with the sitting soul. "Awesome, so I didn't miss the story." She was fully through the portal now, already making herself at home on the Raven Queen's throne, practically on her lap. 

"Don't you already know it? Didn't you see it in your tapestry?" The Raven Queen asked, amused. Kravitz was privately glad. He had wanted to know the same thing, but would never have asked. It seemed disrespectful. 

"Yes and no." Istus said, shrugging. "I saw that Taako would tell us a story, and it would be amazing but nearly unbelievable, but I couldn't see the story."

"Yeah, that tracks. That's like, the least bullshit weave of fate I've heard about."

"Sorry." Kravitz said, his brain still trying to catch up with the soul's previous comment. "Did you say you've talked to  _ other Istuses?"  _

The soul- Taako- shrugged. "You travel to enough planar systems, you start to get the attention of a whole buncha gods." 

The Raven Queen leaned forward, putting her elbows on her knees and nearly spilling Istus to the ground. She reacted quickly, wrapping her arms around Istus's waist and propping her chin on her shoulder. "Now I'm interested, and for more reason than judging your soul. Tell us your tale, and then I'm sure Istus will be itching to begin your orientation as her emissary."

Istus laughed. "I'm patient, dear. I can wait. Patience comes with being able to see everything that's coming and when." She settled back against the Raven Queen and nodded for Taako to begin. 

And Taako wove a story about he and his family finding a Light, and preparing to travel to explore and learn. He told them about how on the day of their departure, a storm attacked. Taako told them how they fled, and when they returned to land, they were on another plane entirely, in a new planar system. 

He told them how they tried to return and failed, how they grew attached to their new world. He told them how the storm attacked again. 

And again. 

And again. 

He told them how they named the storm the Hunger after watching it devour half a dozen planar systems. He told them how they figured out the constants- that the Light always arrived a few days after their crew, that a few days after that the Scouts arrived, and exactly one year after that the Hunger came. They figured out if they took the Light the Hunger left that system alone. 

The most important thing he told them was how they found out- the hard way- that if they died, they would be knit back together at the start of the next year. 

Taako skipped around to what he felt were important years- there had been a hundred of them, after all. 

When Taako had started the story and he found out that two of the highest bounties in their little group, the liches, were his twin sister and his best friend, Kravitz was worried he would skip over the part where they did the ceremony to try to spare them. But, much to Kravitz's surprise, when he got to cycle 82, and told them about the Prime Material Plane there being intersected by the Plane of Magic, and about how it was there were no more people there. About how Lup and Barry figured out a ceremony to become liches devoid of sacrifice, so they could have just that little tiny bit more to use against the Hunger. (Taako's voice got softer around that part, and came close to cracking, but Kravitz ignored it. He could understand him being afraid of his sister and brother in law trying something like that.) 

He wrapped up by telling of their plan to split up the Light into seven relics and giving a bitter laugh. "Guess it worked." He took a deep breath. "Raven Queen, you asked for evidence? My evidence is the seven Relics we made. We had to make them desirable, for the Light to fulfill its purpose, and Luce insisted part of that was ostentatious names." He gave a dry laugh. "The Bulwark Staff, the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet, the Philosopher's Stone, the Oculus, the Gaia Sash, the Temporal Chalice, and the Animus Bell. We… we didn't know the destruction they would cause until it was too late. And then… everyone just forgot. And I think I know why." 

"The creature from Legato." Istus breathed. 

Taako nodded, looking down. "Luce was acting weird for a couple weeks before I- before I forgot. Everything. And the feeling of forgetting everything, of forgetting  _ Lup,  _ it was the same as when Legato's Light pulled the memory of the performance from us." He sighed. "I think Luce figured out how to make herself immune to it. And if Grim here could understand everything I just said, I'm gonna take a wild guess and assume being dead makes you immune, too. Guess I know why Barold begged me to kill him." 

Kravitz caught sight of Taako's hands trembling in his lap. He dropped his scythe, and it disappeared into a wisp of smoke, so he could lay a hand on Taako's shoulder. "It's been a long day. We should probably get some rest." 

His Queen nodded. “I will need some time to deliberate with Istus anyway. Kravitz, would you show him to a spare chamber for the evening?”

Kravitz nodded. He knew his Queen well enough to know she was bluffing; the break was for Taako's benefit. Somehow, Kravitz guessed that if she said that outright he'd insist he was fine. He most definitely wasn't. He needed some rest. 

The Raven Queen lifted a hand, and the doors at the back of the throne room opened themselves. Kravitz guided Taako out. Once outside, he summoned his scythe and tore a rift open to the corner of the Astral Plane where the Reapers resided when they weren’t working- not too far from the Eternal Stockade that the Reapers couldn’t get there quickly in case of an emergency, but far enough the screams of the particularly angry necromancers couldn’t be heard.

He guided Taako to a chamber near his.  _ They’re more apartments, really,  _ he mused. 

If he was honest with himself, he still wasn’t sure how he felt about this. Normally people like this, who had been forced into death crimes against their will, fell to the Raven Queen to rehabilitate as she saw fit. Maybe giving Taako to Istus was the rehabilitation she thought would be best for him?

_ Or maybe,  _ he thought, perhaps a bit blasphemously, _ My Queen is whipped. _

* * *

Taako leaned against the door almost as soon as it was shut, sliding down it to put his face in his knees. "You would think making your case to death gods would get easier with time," he said to no one. 

_ No one.  _ The thought rang numbly in his ears. His brain was still at war with itself; on one hand, it was shocked. The thought that he'd never been alone was unfathomable. And on the other hand, it was obvious- of course he'd never been alone. For a century he'd had friends so close he'd call them family, loathe as he'd been at first to let them that close. And before that, he had  _ never  _ been without Lup. 

_ Gods,  _ Lup. He feels awful for having forgotten her, even as he remembers clinging to the memories as hard as he could even as he'd felt them sliding out of his mind, one after the other, like he was trying to catch hold of the flames she loved. He laughed hysterically to himself- quietly, he didn't want to alert Kravitz. He'd embarrassed himself enough in front of him. But if he didn't laugh, he'd cry, and Taako didn't  _ do  _ crying. Lup did that. But Lup wasn't around to cry for them both anymore. 

He burrowed his head further into his knees. If he and Barry hadn't been able to find her when she had just left, or even in the couple months after, there was no way he'd be able to find her now. Not that he'd ever give up trying. He'd have to be forced into the soul soup, kicking and screaming, and then he'd find a way out. 

What had even happened to Barry? Where was he now? He was a lich now, so he had to have remembered, right? Would he realise what had happened to Taako? 

The questions kept building, and with them the emotions, and yeah, this was why Taako didn't do Emotions. So he did what he always did to them unless Lup was around to yank them out to see the light of day- forced them deep, deep down and made his way to the kitchen.

It was easy enough to find, only one of two doors off from the living area. It was disgustingly sparse- just an icebox and a stove, with a very small amount of counter space. He was dreading looking  _ inside  _ the icebox- how would he stress bake if there was nothing to bake  _ with?  _

But he opened it and, as if reading his mind before the thought even came to it, the ingredients for Elderflower Macaroons were there. He grabbed them and dumped them on the counter, preparing to let himself fall into the thoughtless trance barking brought. 

Only to have himself freeze up at step one. Here he was, with all the ingredients, and he couldn't even sift the flour without hyperventilating. He slammed it down angrily. He took a deep breath. And then another. He turned and left the kitchen and went to his room, leaving the ingredients. He'd clean up the mess tomorrow. 

He flopped down on the bed. He didn't even know if he could sleep, but he was exhausted. He sighed. If he couldn't bake, he may as well distract himself by sleeping.

* * *

Taako woke to knocking and Kravitz calling out his name. He groaned and rolled out of bed. 

"Taako, My Queen and Istus are calling for you." Kravitz said insistently. 

"Yeah, yeah, 'm up." He snapped. There was a mirror in the corner of the room he hadn't seen last night. (Was that the right term? He wasn't sure how time worked on the Astral Plane.) He groaned as he looked at his reflection. He looked awful. There wasn't much he could do without a brush and some makeup, so he finger combed his hair and cast Disguise Self. He walked out of the borrowed room- more of an apartment, really- seeming to startle Kravitz. 

"Ready, Grim?" He asked, offering his elbow. Kravitz nodded, tearing a rift open in front of the throne room. Trying to act nonchalant, Taako detached himself from Kravitz and marched to the doors to throw them open. 

"Wait, Taako, the Raven Queen has to call you-" Kravitz tried to say, too late. Taako marched in, looking up at RQ and Istus. 

"So what's the sitch?" He asked. 

"Taako, be polite!" Kravitz hissed behind him. Taako rolled his eyes. 

"The 'sitch', Taako, is that you'll be my emissary," Istus said, eyes sparkling with mirth. "You will apprehend people manipulating time to their will, and fix what they've done." 

"You will have to serve for a long time to help heal your soul, Taako, but you may keep serving after if you choose." RQ finished. 

Taako nodded. "Yeah, sounds good. Better than soul soup." Kravitz made an undignified squawking noise of protest behind. The Raven Queen laughed. It sounded like a horde of crows foretelling a tragedy. 

"I suppose it is. Istus?" 

Istus rose from where she was sitting next to RQ (there was another throne there today. Why didn't Istus use it yesterday? Lesbians.) and shrank herself down so she was only twice as tall as Taako. "You'll need a couple gifts to help you on your way, like Kravitz has his scythe and robe from Raven. First, you'll need to be able to see when time is going wrong. I'm sure you don't want all those eyes on your face, yes?" 

Taako wrinkled his nose. "Extra eyes on my face? No thanks." 

Istus nodded. "I think you'll find this an agreeable solution, then." She tapped Taako's hat, and he could sense the change immediately. He could suddenly see in 360°, and everything seemed sharper, somehow. "While its main purpose is to see wrinkles or snares in the Weave of Fate, my eyes also grant you Truesight and Blindsight. I know you love to switch your hats, so worry not- they'll switch with them. You can hide them too, for fashion or subterfuge- if you focus, you can close them."

Taako did, and it took a minute, but he managed to close them. The change was immediate. His vision went back to normal, and though the sudden change to 360 vision had been disorienting, the change back was just as much. "So the cool vision stuff doesn't work when the hat eyes are closed then?" 

"No, unfortunately." Istus shook her head. "Next, you need something to help you get around. Kravitz's scythe can tear holes in space to get him to his bounties, as well as reaping them. This is very similar, except it will also get you through time, to find temporal criminals who slip through the time stream." She held out a single knitting needle, except it was nearly as tall as him. 

"Can I make it vanish like Krav's scythe? This doesn't really fit the whole Taako aesthetic."

"And the eyes do?"

"Oh, hell yeah! Weird ass design is the core of the Taako brand."

Istus laughed, and RQ spoke from behind her. "Yes, I'll have Kravitz teach you how he summons and dispels his scythe. The technique should be similar enough."

"That settles that, then." Istus said breezily. If Taako looked closely, he could see a glint of mischief in her eye. "One more gift for you, Taako. This will hold for you exactly what you need, when you need it." She held out a small pouch, secured with a lock, and no key.

"The hell does that mean?" Taako could practically feel Kravitz's disapproving stare. 

However, Istus's gaze remained kindly. "I don't know exactly what you'll need, or when. Just that you'll need it." 

Taako opened his mouth to protest, but just sighed and tucked it into his robe. "Is that all, then?" 

"Not quite. I've got your first mission, Taako. A joint one, actually. You'll need this for this mission specifically, but I'll need it back once you're done." Istus handed Taako what looked like a giant clock hand. He arched an eyebrow. "It's called the Chance Lance." She said unhelpfully. 

"Why the hell are you giving me, a wizard, a weapon?"

The Raven Queen spoke up now. "In a place known as the Woven Gulch lies a town named Refuge. Its inhabitants have died over 24,000 times." Taako's mouth dropped open, and without even turning around, he could feel Kravitz's shock. 

"They have also been repeating a single hour for a little over three years now." Istus continued. "We haven't had much luck getting in- time is so warped there that a literal bubble has gone up to protect time outside of the town. But now we know what the cause is most likely to be. That could help us get in there. Your mission, Taako and Kravitz, is to get into Refuge and stop what is making the town time sick."

"I believe the citizens of Refuge are all victims of circumstances, Kravitz, but I'm sending you both as a precaution and to help Taako get accustomed to his duties." The Raven Queen was serious, Taako could tell, but there was a hint of… something in her voice. Fondness? 

"If what is making the town sick is not, in fact, the Chalice, your next mission will be to collect it, Taako. For now, though, you and Kravitz have a mission to plan for. Don't use the Lance until you find the source- you may need to make use of the repeated hours. Something is killing an entire town, after all. We don't want to reset everything only for them to come out dead on the other end." Istus's words were macabre, but her tone was light and joking. Taako smirked. 

"Don't worry. Taako's got this one in the bag." 

"I'm glad to hear it." RQ said. "You both may go." 

Taako gave her a thumbs up and walked with Kravitz outside the throne room. He could hear Kravitz suppressing the urge to groan at his lack of decorum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is Lucretia! I'm very excited. Also, boys go to Refuge!


	3. Chapter 2: Taako's Not A Nerd (Except When He Is)

"Madame Director?" 

Lucretia looked up to see Killian peering into her office. She seemed timid; that was unusual for her. She was usually brash and straightforward. She probably had some unpleasant news. She may as well get this over with. Maybe it was news of a Relic destroying a town, which was awful, but would at least give their fledgling organisation something to mark their success with. If they could recover it, anyway. 

"What is it, Killian?" 

"You know those guys you asked us to keep an eye on?" 

Lucretia's heart plummeted. Dread settled over her like a heavy winter cloak. She hoped that when she spoke, her voice didn't crack. "Yes? What of them?" 

Wordlessly, Killian came forward and sat something on her desk. A newspaper. Lucretia's heart stopped when she read the front page headline.

_ Sizzle It Up! With Taako Host Sentenced To Death For 40 Counts Of First Degree Murder _

Lucretia stared at it in shock. "What-" 

Killian looked at her apologetically. "One of the seekers found that in a small town called Glamour Springs. I'm sorry, Director." 

She couldn't read the paper. Her breathing was too shaky and her eyes were too blurry. She was barely able to get her voice to work. "H-how?" 

Killian looked like she didn't want to answer, so Lucretia desperately snatched the paper off the desk, trying in vain to see through the wetness in her eyes. Killian gently pushed it down. “The paper says he poisoned them. Says he turned the elderberries into nightshade. They couldn’t find a motivation, but his assistant ratted him out, said it was premeditated. Seems pretty fishy to me, but it seems like you’re the one who knew him.”

Lucretia was vaguely aware of herself nodding. Taako was dead. On this, the final cycle. First Lup. Then Barry. Now Taako. She knew Barry was still out there somewhere, in his lich form, looking for Lup, but despite never stopping the search for Lup herself, Lucretia had never managed to find her. 

Gods, this was the  _ last cycle  _ and Taako was  _ dead.  _ This was supposed to be their happy ending! Even if Lucretia didn’t fit into it anymore, and she wouldn’t even blame them if they didn’t want her after all she did- but the others? They were supposed to be happy. 

She had half a mind to abandon her mission. To grab Fisher and their baby and board the Starblaster and fly away. Then she’d have her family back, and she could have them drink the ichor, and they’d be back to square one but they’d be whole again. 

“Madame Director?” Killian’s voice cut through the fog on Lucretia’s mind. She blinked.

“What was that, Killian?” 

“I asked if you want us to dig a little deeper into the murders. We’re busy looking for the Relics, but we have zip to go on right now. And, if I’m being blunt, you’re really torn up about this. If I had to bet, I’d put my money on you not being close to someone who had the capacity to do this.” She gestured toward the crumpled paper. 

Anger rose up in Lucretia’s chest. Because of course it wasn’t Taako. He may be callous and rude and even a bit cruel to keep people at arm’s length, but he wasn’t a murderer. Even if she didn’t know the Taako that never had Lup, she was absolutely sure of that much. “Yes.” She said, her voice stronger than she felt. Killian nodded and exited the room. Lucretia slumped into her chair.

Fuck. As much as she wanted to, she wasn’t selfish enough to run. Or maybe it was the opposite- she was too selfish and that was why she couldn’t. But she couldn’t let  _ another  _ plane be ravaged by the Hunger. Her plan would work. She was sure of it. 

Taako’s death, Lup’s disappearance, Barry’s heartbreak- those were crimes she’d have on her conscience for eternity. She would shoulder them- she just had to make sure there was an eternity first. 

But for now, she let herself break down into the first tears she had let herself cry in years.

* * *

“Try again.” Kravitz’s voice left no room for argument. He was a strict teacher, and also incredibly cryptic at explaining things. His explanations all relied on  _ feelings  _ and  _ intuition,  _ like some kind of fucking bard or something. Taako was a wizard. He did better with concise technical explanations. Not that he’d ever say that out loud- he couldn’t have Kravitz thinkig he was a  _ nerd.  _ He could still complain, though. Complaining was definitely part of the Taako Brand.

Taako huffed dramatically. “You’re not giving me much to work with, Bones. ‘Feel the fabric of reality in your soul’ isn’t doing it for me.” 

“That’s not what I said and you know it.” Kravitz said. He lowered his scythe, and Taako followed suit with his enourmous needle. “I  _ said,  _ ‘reach out with our mind and feel the veil that separates the plains.’”

“Same difference.” Taako waved his hand breezily at Kravitz. “Can’t I just cast, like, Plane Shift or something and be done with it?”

“I… suppose it works similarly to that. Though your needle should make it so you don’t have to expend a spell slot to do so.” 

Taako eyed him incredulously. He could have been done with this a fucking  _ hour  _ ago if he’d said that from the beginning. “Why didn’t you just  _ say  _ that, instead of that ‘feel it with your mind’ bullshit?”

Kravitz arched an eyebrow, looking more amused than annoyed. “Sorry, Taako, I haven’t really met many trainees who find a seventh level spell easier than my ‘bullshit’.” The asshole actually dispelled his scythe so he could make air quotes around the ‘bullshit', summoning it back immediately after.

Whoops. Looked like Taako had ended up revealing that he might  _ maybe  _ be a bit of a nerd. A little. He shrugged anyway. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you think I’m a nerd or somethin’.”

Kravitz chuckled good-naturedly. “What’s so bad about being a nerd?”

“Uh,  _ everything?  _ Nerds are, like,” Taako waved his hands around, trying to find the right word. “Nerds,” he finished, rather eloquently if he said so himself.

“Right.” Kravitz said, smirking.

“Fuck you.” Taako shot back. “I’m gonna try it the not confusing way now, asshole.” He took his needle in both his hands. It was bigger than most of the foci he’d used, except maybe the KrEbStAr. Still, its weight felt familiar and nice in his hands, despite him only having used it for about an hour and a half. 

He focused his magic on the tip of it, casting the spell as if it were both focus and material component. He focused on the bonds he knew connected the plains, using them to pull apart a small hole, and wedging his magic in to make it bigger and bigger, until he finished casting and opened his eyes. (For all the shit he gave Kravitz, and all the technical terms that helped him grasp magic, sometimes the actual casting felt like a cryptic bardic bullshit spell description.)

A portal was opening in front of him. This was definitely not Plane Shift- usually, when he opened his eyes, they were just  _ there  _ in whatever location he’d chosen on the other Plane, and there was no visible portal.

But one was opening right in front of them, unraveling like someone was pulling on the end of a knitting project to undo their work. It kept unravelling until it was as wide as Taako was tall and twice as high. Kravitz let out a low whistle.

“Note to self,” Kravitz said, “unreasonably complicated and high level spells work better as a starting point than metaphors do.”

“Ch’yeah. Natch.” Taako smirked, then realised he hadn’t set an endpoint for the portal beyond The Material Plane. He peered in. 

Glamour Springs peered back. 

He closed the portal. He wasn’t sure how, but it felt as intuitive as opening it had once he’d had a spell to relate it to. 

“So,” Taako said, probably a little to shrill, “what’s next? Anything else you need to teach me before we go to Evil West World?”

If Kravtiz noticed his discomfort, he didn’t say anything. “No, not really. Unless you want to practice with your Eyes? I know extra senses can be disorienting to get used to, and mine don't even expand my field of vision.”

“Nah, I’m good. Takes about 30 seconds for me to adjust, but that's about it. I’ll be good.” 

“Alright, then. Uh, you’re gonna have to open the portal, by the way. The Raven Queen has tried to send Reapers in before, but we haven’t been able to get in. Probably because it’s technically, like, a couple years ago now.” Kravitz shuffled a bit awkwardly. 

Taako sighed. This was fine. This was  _ fine,  _ really. The Reaper who’d been Reaping probably longer than he’d been alive couldn’t use his powers to get into the Time Bubble, but somehow he was supposed to figure it out. Without getting either of them hurt. He would, natch, but like, it was a lot of pressure. 

“Alright then, Grim, I have exactly zero idea what I’m doing, so you may wanna stand back.” After Kravitz took a couple obligatory steps, Taako tried to create the portal the same way he’d made the other. Nothing happened.

That was to be expected. Plane Shift was for travelling through space, not time, and like Kravitz had pointed out, the town was a couple years behind by now. He rocked back on his heels, biting his lip. 

He only knew of one time spell. He’d never cast it before, since it was Ninth Level, but it was Transmutation (for some reason. He had no idea why.) Even if he had no clue  _ why  _ it was Transmutation, if time magic was Transmutation, he should be able to figure it out easy, right? He was a fucking  _ baller  _ transmutation wizard, not counting or thinking about recent events, and he’d read the theory on Time Stop. He’d created new spells before (mostly for pranking Lup and Mags), too, so how hard would mixing the theory for one with the practice of another be? Easy. Natch. 

He focused on trying to remember the theory behind Time Stop, and trying to mix it with the theory of Plane Shift. He swiped his needle a couple times, trying to focus the theories differently, but each time nothing happened. Taakp groaned loudly, throwing his head back and letting the needle disappear. He was glad Kravitz had taught him that first- it added to the drama. "Look, bones, as great as your Bardic bullshit descriptions are, and as  _ incredibly helpful  _ as you're being right now, why isn't Istus having one of her emissaries teach me this shit?"

Kravitz's look of amusement dropped into discomfort. "Lady Istus is… very selective of her emissaries."

"To get Taako in her service, she better be."

Irritation flashed briefly across Kravitz's face, whether at being interrupted or talking about gods the way he did, Taako didn't know. "She hasn't welcomed someone new into her service for a couple thousand years, now."

"What are you saying there, Dullahan? I thought we were as immortal as the dead could get."

Kravitz bit his lip. "Actually, I've never known Lady Istus to welcome one of the dead into her retinue."

Taako stared at Kravitz, his words sinking in. Kravitz stared back, looking like he was bracing for the realization to hit. 

"Are you telling me-" 

"In her defense, time magic is very dangerous, she has to be very careful of who she allows to use it-"

"-that the number of emissaries Istus has is one? Uno?  _ Taako?!"  _

"Possibly." Kravitz said, shifting his weight between his feet. 

"I don't know whether this should inflate my already engorged ego or if I should be terrified that I'm the only one." Kravitz moved closer to Taako, tentatively holding a hand out like he was afraid Taako would faint. Taako waved him off. "I'm fine. Just- just give me a fuckin half hour and a notebook. If Lup and Barold aren't around to be nerds, I  _ guess  _ I can step up to the plate." 

Kravitz took a step back again, and then turned and walked away to find some paper. When he came back with it, Taako was sitting against the wall, muttering under his breath. He left it, and backed away before Taako accidentally cursed him or something.

* * *

Lucretia looked at the coroner's reports in furious disbelief. None of the victims matched the symptoms for Nightshade Poisoning. Anyone who had studied plants in any degree would know that. Or, in her case, anyone who had lived with someone that had had an unhealthy obsession with them would. 

What the symptoms  _ did  _ line up with was Arsenic Poisoning. A coroner  _ definitely  _ should have recognized this, even if they didn't know the symptoms of eating Nightshade without looking it up. So how did Taako get convicted of killing everyone with Nightshade? Was the coroner just incompetent? 

Her mystification continued until she got to one of the first reports filed. She had to double check the name. But she was right- she'd seen the name before. She dug through the pile of ones she'd set aside after she read them again. It had been filed much later the second time- it was one of the last ones. Except the first time, it said arsenic. 

That one wasn't signed. The one that read Nightshade was. 

Swallowing a lump in her throat, Lucretia continued, thanking whatever god Carrey prayed to that she had somehow grabbed the unsigned papers when she went to steal copies of the reports. 

She found three more like the first one. They were the first four reports filed. After that, they all began to read Nightshade as the cause of death. 

Lucretia studied them closely, looking for any sort of clue. The empty signature line on the second report caught her eye. 

Little parts of it were gone, like there had been writing there and the ink had been removed, taking the ink from the line with it. Lucretia would know- she'd messed up more than once when writing in permanent ink. Prestidigitation was a simple and effective way to erase it, but it took the bits of the lines where the letters crossed over it up with it. 

Lucretia chewed her lip so hard she nearly drew blood. Just what the hell was going on here?

* * *

After what was closer to an hour than Taako's requested half hour (and a lot of grumbling), Taako thought he had an idea. He stood, cracking his back, and summoned his needle again. 

This time, when he cast the spell, he had less of a vice grip on the bonds and tried to use the needle to guide it, instead. It worked like a charm. 

He was completely unsure how he'd managed to mix the theory of a ninth level spell without ever having cast it, but he had. He grinned. "Yo, bones! I think I got it!" 

Kravitz poked his head back into the room, eyes lighting up when he saw it. "That's… incredible, Taako." 

Taako ignored how that made his stomach feel funny and smirked. "That's how we do. Time magic is Transmutation, and as i keep saying, I am a fucking  _ baller  _ Transmutation wizard." Kravitz rolled his eyes at his bragging. 

"All right then, shall we?" Kravitz, the fucking gentleman that he apparently was, offered his arm.

"Why thank you, good sir." Taako put on the poshest fucking accent he could and mockingly took Kravitz's arm. They stepped through the portal together.

Everything went white. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm baaaack 
> 
> Sorry it took me so long ;w; this chapter would not cooperate at all lol 
> 
> But! I'm decently happy with how it came out. I love Lucretia so much you guys, but she's gonna have to hurt for a little while

**Author's Note:**

> Be warned that I'm probably gonna be slow at posting- I'm currently running 2 dnd campaigns, I'm in a 3rd, and I also have a part time job. I'll do my best tho, and the first chapter is done and should be up in a few days! 
> 
> Find me on [tumblr!](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/fabnamessuggestedbytumbler)


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